Westfield State College joins 5 other Massachusetts institutions hoping to change name to 'university'

Kenneth A. Lemanski, left, director of advancement at Westfield State College, is seen at the Statehouse with state Rep. Christopher Donelan, center, and Admiral Richard Gurnon, president of Massachusetts Maritime Academy during Massachusetts State College Day on April 13. Donelan is a graduate of Westfield State College.

For state colleges hoping to become universities, a name change could mean more money, higher prestige and a more accurate reflection of the institutions of higher learning they are today.

“It’s like catching up to the reality,” says Kenneth A. Lemanski, director of advancement at Westfield State College.

Westfield State is among six Massachusetts state colleges looking for legislative approval to change their name designations.

They’ve tried before, unsuccessfully, and are now more optimistic they can convince the state Legislature to allow the change. The proposal recently received a favorable report from the Legislature’s joint Higher Education Committee and has gone to the House Ways & Means Committee.

In 2007, a proposal to rename all nine state colleges never even made it out of committee.

Lemanski, a former state representative from Chicopee who was chief executive officer of the Council of Presidents of the Massachusetts State Colleges before joining the staff at Westfield, is among the officials and alumni from the six colleges who are lobbying for the bill. They want to see it approved before the Legislature adjourns in the coming weeks. If it’s not considered, new legislation would have to be filed next year.

“We are continuing to review the legislation, along with all of the other pieces of legislation that are currently before the committee,” said Wayne Weikel, chief of staff for the Ways & Means Committee.

Lemanski believes legislators are more receptive to the college-to-university effort now because “the facts are out now about what it really means. It’s not really a change in mission. It takes a while for people to understand those things.”

Besides Westfield, the other state schools seeking the change are Bridgewater, Fitchburg, Framingham, Salem and Worcester.

The Massachusetts College of Art and Design, the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and Massachusetts Maritime Academy would retain their names. A name change would not help those three schools because they already have a distinct identity, Lemanski said.

Donald F. Humason Jr. That identity, or “tradition,” is something that state Rep. Donald A. Humason, R-Westfield, wants to see preserved. Humason not only represents the city of Westfield but is an alumnus of the state college. He also happens to be a member of the Higher Education Committee.

While he voted to report the bill out of committee – “I’m not going to stand in the way of debate.” – Humason isn’t certain he’s a supporter. He’s still waiting for a succinct argument on why it’s truly needed.

“As a proud alum who graduated 21 years ago from Westfield State College, I think a name change hurts the continuity and long proud tradition of a great school that’s over 170 years old,” Humason said. “Westfield State says it wants to appeal to foreign students who they say wouldn’t come to WSC for some reason because they aren’t smart enough to realize that ‘college,’ which means high school in their country, is an institution of higher learning in our country. I say attracting foreign students is nice, but I’d rather the Massachusetts public colleges focus on educating Massachusetts and American kids first.”

Humason noted that proponents also “claim they want to change the names to compete with other states that have changed their college names.” But, in the case of Westfield State, he said, “they are already so overcrowded that they are turning kids away.”

“Westfield State is the best school in the system, the flagship of public colleges in the commonwealth. So what’s the big deal,” Humason asked. “They have no problem remaining competitive now. To me, there’s plenty of other things they could be pushing for in the state college system.”

Westfield State has had several name changes over the years, beginning as Westfield Normal School in 1839 and then becoming Westfield State Teachers College in the 1930s before changing to its current incarnation. And, Lemanski said, it’s “not just renaming itself” which makes the proposal important.

The new name would help the college’s “brand,” he said, and also help to students who want to attend a university. It would also allow the six institutions to apply for grants for which they are currently ineligible as colleges.

Forty-eight other states, including neighboring New Hampshire and Connecticut, have adopted the state university name, and those nearby institutions are luring students from Massachusetts away.

Lemanski said his own nephew ended up at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire because he didn’t want to go to a state “college” here. “Universities, in some students mind, are better,” he said. He says there are statistics which show Plymouth State witnessed a nearly 50 percent increase in the number of Massachusetts students enrolling after it changed its name.

To be a university, the colleges would have to meet criteria described by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Being a university would allow the state colleges to offer more programs, including doctorates, which they currently cannot do on their own, Lemanski said.

Lemanski says becoming a university would not cost the state additional money; and, he stressed, the colleges-turned-universities would not become part of the University of Massachusetts system.

Lemanski, who happens to be a UMass alum, contends the job descriptions of the state college faculty would not change so they would not earn higher salaries, one of the matters which Humason, among others, questions.

“You don’t think the unions are going to come to you next year and say, ‘We want to be paid commensurate to employees of universities,” the Westfield legislator said. “How about the signs on campus? How about the letterheads? How about the telephone system? There are costs associated with this.”

There is also “one little roadblock” which supporters face, and it’s not his vote, Humason said. “There’s the president pro tem of the Senate, Stan Rosenberg (who) they’ve got to worry about.”

Stanley C. Rosenberg Indeed, state Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg, D-Amherst, who has the UMass flagship campus in his district, says, “I still have very serious concerns” about the name-change legislation.

Both Lowell and Dartmouth became part of the university system and have siphoned off money from the Amherst, Boston and Worcester campuses, Rosenberg said. Those schools became part of UMass in 1991.

“We compromised our ability to build and maintain excellence,” Rosenberg said. “The UMass system, instead of having three under-funded campuses, now has five.”

Rosenberg also doubts the contention that the change wouldn’t cost the state money or be anything more than a name change. Like Humason suggests, when the next contract expires, the unions are going to insist on university status, benefits and pay, Rosenberg said.

He thinks the state universities would also hurt UMass by competing with them for funding.

If there is to be a change, Rosenberg said, he’d like to see it as “a comprehensive vision of where we want to take higher education.” But instead of doing that, “we back into decisions,” the senator said. Instead of being driven by politics, there needs to be a coordinated look at the missions of the state colleges and the university system, he suggested.

Robert P. Connolly, a spokesman for President Jack M. Wilson stated in an e-mail, that “Wilson (too) has registered his concerns about the need to maintain the distinctive missions of the three segments of public higher education in Massachusetts,” referring to the state colleges, community colleges and the UMass system.